A bizarre and terrifying experience; I messed up the dungeon world.

Rule number two: Don't open the door if there's no shadow. But he was already inside. It was his stepmother who opened the door.

"What's wrong?" Li Jinshan tilted his head. "Are you unhappy to see me?"

Han Yingying shook her head. "No."

"Then let's sit down and talk," he said, gesturing to the sofa next to him.

"Yingying, come sit down here," her stepmother urged from the side.

Liu Siqi was curled up on the single sofa scrolling through her phone, and without looking up, she added, "Sis, don't put on airs. People came all this way to see you."

Han Yingying stood there, her mind racing. What exactly was this man without a shadow? What should she do? The rules didn't specify what to do if someone was already inside a house.

She chose to sit down. Not on the sofa, but in the dining chair furthest from Li Jinshan.

"I'm not feeling well," she said. "I have a headache."

Li Jinshan's smile remained unchanged. "Then I'll come again another day."

He stood up, nodded to his stepmother, and walked towards the door. He paused as he passed Han Yingying.

"Yingying, I'll come often."

There was nothing wrong with the sentence itself, but the way he said it—the tone and rhythm were different—made it sound like both vocal cords were vibrating at the same time, creating a discordant resonance.

Han Yingying gripped the water bottle tightly, her fingernails digging into the plastic.

The door is closed.

Han Yingying returned to her room and locked the door. She leaned against the door, her heart pounding so hard her chest ached.

Something's wrong. The whole world is wrong. Rules, amnesia, people without shadows—all these things are mixed together, making her feel like she's been thrown onto a giant chessboard, and she's not even a piece.

At nine o'clock in the evening, she heard a knock on the door.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Three sounds, neither hurried nor slow.

Han Yingying didn't say anything. She peered through the peephole and saw Liu Siqi standing in the hallway, wearing pajamas.

She has a shadow.

Han Yingying opened the door.

"what?"

Liu Siqi squeezed in, closed the door, and her expression was different. The arrogance she had during the day had largely subsided, and her eyes were slightly red.

"Sis, that person..."

"What's wrong?"

"When he left just now, I glanced out the window," Liu Siqi said, her voice strained. "He didn't leave the complex. He stood downstairs, looking up in our direction. He's been standing there for almost three hours."

Han Yingying walked to the window and pulled back a corner of the curtain.

Under the streetlight at the entrance of the building downstairs, a black, human-shaped silhouette stood straight, face upwards. The distance was too far to see the facial features clearly, but the angle of the head tilted upwards was abnormal—the chin was almost touching the back of the head, as if the neck had been broken.

Liu Siqi whispered behind her, "Sis, I tore up the rules before...did I do something wrong?"

Han Yingying lowered the curtains.

Do you remember what the rules say?

"I can't remember everything... I just glanced at it when I tore it up."

Han Yingying remained silent for a few seconds.

"Go to sleep, don't think too much."

After Liu Siqi left, Han Yingying drew all the curtains shut and barricaded the door with a table. She sat on the bed, staring at the rules all night.

At six o'clock the next morning, she went to the window and took a look.

There was no one downstairs.

But on the concrete ground under that streetlamp, there was a ring of black marks, as if something had stood there for too long and left its shadow on the ground.

At 10 a.m., my stepmother said that Li Jinshan had called and would be coming over again tonight.

Han Yingying refused.

The stepmother's expression changed. "Yingying, what do you mean? Your father promised to take her away; you can't go back on your word."

"I don't know him."

"That means you have amnesia!" the stepmother raised her voice. "You don't remember anything. Is it wrong to listen to me?"

Liu Siqi chimed in from the side, "Sis, just go along with it, their conditions are so good, the car they drive is—"

I said I wouldn't see you.

Han Yingying's voice wasn't loud, but it stunned both the mother and daughter. The stepmother opened her mouth, but didn't say anything. She picked up her phone and went into the bedroom to make a call.

At six o'clock in the evening, the doorbell rang.

Han Yingying didn't open the door. Her stepmother opened it instead.

Li Jinshan came again. This time he brought flowers, a bouquet of white lilies. He was wearing the exact same suit as yesterday, even the way he tied his tie was the same, the texture of his hair, the wrinkles on his shoes were exactly the same as yesterday—like a copy-paste.

Han Yingying came out of her room and stood at the entrance of the corridor.

"I will not marry you."

The moment those words were spoken, the atmosphere changed.

The teacup in her stepmother's hand fell to the ground and shattered. Liu Siqi looked up, and her phone slipped from her hand.

Li Jinshan looked at her, and his smile slowly faded.

He tilted his head more than he had yesterday. A cracking sound came from his neck.

"Yingying, you've broken the rules."

His voice once again became that double resonance.

The lights in the room began to flicker. The rule sheet on the wall—the only one left in Han Yingying's room—spontaneously combusted without fire, sending ashes flying. The stepmother screamed, and Liu Siqi jumped up from the sofa.

The floor beneath Han Yingying's feet began to crack, with black lines spreading out like blood vessels.

A system notification popped up in front of her:

[Rule violation detected. Player Han Yingying has triggered the penalty mechanism.]

[Teleport destination: Horrifying Inn.]

Countdown: 3, 2, 1 —

Darkness swallowed everything.

Han Yingying bumped her knee when she landed.

She opened her eyes to find herself surrounded by a vast, greyish-white wilderness. The sky was devoid of sun and clouds, a uniform, pale white, like a faded curtain. The ground was a gravel path that stretched out before disappearing into the distant mist.

A rusty bus stop sign stands by the roadside.

[Terrifying B&B - Bus Stop]

Several people were already standing under the bus stop sign.

Han Yingying got up, dusted herself off, and looked at the people. There were six of them, standing sparsely and keeping their distance from each other.

The closest one was a middle-aged man, wearing a windbreaker, with a buzz cut and tattoos on his arms. He glanced at Han Yingying but didn't say anything.

Beyond that were two men and one woman. The two men were of different heights; the taller one was almost 1.9 meters tall, lean, and wore gold-rimmed glasses that didn't suit his physique at all; the shorter one had a round face and small eyes, and carried a backpack, looking like a college student.

The woman was striking. Around twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, with long, flowing hair, a tall figure, and striking features, she wore a long black trench coat and looked like she'd been cropped straight out of a magazine cover. The term "mature and sophisticated woman" was invented for this type of person.

Two other people stood further away—a tall, thin boy in a plaid shirt, looking down and fiddling with something on his wrist; and an old man with gray hair, hunched over, leaning on a cane.

Han Yingying walked over and stood next to the bus stop sign.

The system prompt popped up again:

The "Horror Inn" instance is now active. Current player count: 8.

[Players are advised to get to know each other and team up for survival.]

The bus will arrive in 15 minutes.